Dixons renames itself Dixons

DSGi shares are up slightly this morning after the retail group posted results for the year at the top end of expectations.

In the year ended 31 May 2010 DSGi, owner of PC World and Currys, made sales of £8,531.6m, up four per cent on last year or two per cent like-for-like. Pre-tax profit was up 61 per cent to £90.5m.

In the UK and Ireland sales were down five per cent at £4,013.5m but showed some improvement in the second half as the benefits of the shop revamp programme were felt.

The retail giant is two years into a store revamp programme that promises better service - not something the company has been known for - swankier stores and lower stock levels.

Some 200 stores have now been tarted up and another 80 should be ready for Christmas peak trading. By October 2010 two-thirds of stores will have been recently refitted. The new stores continue to outperform older ones with average gross profits up 20 per cent.

But its not just shops - 16 per cent of the group's sales, or £1.4bn, now comes from its various online stores. The programme also covers back office ops. The logistics and supply lines of PC World, Currys, CurrysDigital and Dixons Travel have been combined with one main fulfilment warehouse in Newark.

Although the company continues to have concerns about the economic outlook across Europe it expects its own profitability to continue to improve.

The DSGi strategy boutique has hilariously broken out the whale song and incense sticks, deciding the DSGi name is too cumbersome.

The company will instead be known as, er, Dixons Retail plc. The not-so-dramatic rebrand will need the nod from shareholders at the firm's AGM.

This, we're told, will "harness the strength of the Dixons name and to reflect the resurgence of the company. The Dixons name resonates strongly with suppliers, the market, and colleagues in a way that DSG international has not been able to."